The Argentinian climber stranded on Mount Logan for four days is now safely back in Vancouver.

Natalia Martinez, 37, was thankful for her rescue by helicopter last Thursday evening.

She became stranded 3,700 metres up Mount Logan following avalanches caused by last Monday morning’s two earthquakes.

“She said, ‘thank you, and she was very quiet,” said Ian Pitchforth, the Trans North Helicopters pilot behind the rescue.

“She was totally fine, just tired, but she didn’t say much at all,” he noted in an interview with the Star this morning.

Pitchforth and rescue team members Scott Stewart, Sara Chisholm and David Blackburn from Parks Canada, sprang into action last Thursday evening once they received word there had been a break in the weather.

“Weather is one of the biggest factors that determine success in the Kluane,” noted Stewart via teleconference on Friday afternoon.

The team flew from Haines Junction and staged a base at the bottom of the glacier. Then Pitchforth and Stewart flew up the mountain to retrieve Martinez.

“It’s difficult to speculate on her state of mind, but she was visibly appreciative when we picked her up,” said Stewart.

Martinez and the rescue team arrived safely in Silver City at around 9:30 p.m. From lift-off to return, the rescue took about three hours.

After recuperating for several days at Icefield Discovery Tours, Martinez travelled back to Vancouver with her partner, Camilo Rada, who had flown to the Yukon to meet her.

“It went really well because the weather improved to such a point that it wasn’t really a concern anymore,” Pitchforth said of the rescue.

“That’s often the biggest challenge, because it has its own weather system out there.”

Stormy weather in the St. Elias region had prevented an earlier resuce.

Pilot Tom Bradley of Icefield Discovery Tours, the outfitter that flew Martinez to her base camp, noticed the weather break last Thursday night while he was flying a guest tour to their discovery camp.

He notified Parks Canada, which organized the rescue.

While Martinez was thankful for rescue, Bradley noted, having to end her climb was bittersweet.

“It was a bit of a blow to her because she’d done so well on the climb, and she’d made it through the worst of the technical stages,” he said.

Martinez, an experienced climber, began her solo trek on April 22.

She had planned to climb the East Ridge of Mount Logan to the highest peak, traverse the top of the mountain, then descend the west side down the King’s Trench.

But last Monday, 6.2 and 6.3 magnitude earthquakes struck the territory, northern B.C. and Alaska, sending snow and glacial ice down the mountain, which left her trapped.

Martinez remained in contact with Parks Canada and her partner by satellite phone as they planned for rescue.

She hunkered down at her camp at 3,680 metres elevation and had adequate food and fuel to wait out the poor weather conditions.

“In this case, Ms. Martinez did everything right,” said Stewart.

“She had adequate experience, adequate equipment and adequate communication.”

He noted that safety is a shared responsibility in Canada’s parks and visitors must take the necessary precautions when they attempt these sorts of trips.

“Visitors must be entirely self-reliant and self-sufficient,” he said.

“Accidents do happen.”

He said preparation includes mandatory registration, being prepared to deal with injuries and having a means of communication and adequate food, fuel and equipment.

As of Friday, there was one other party on Mount Logan.

Stewart said they have another two weeks built into their itinerary, and are doing everything they can to weather the storm in their location.

“We’re very proud of our employers and partners who did a phenomenal job in this instance,” Diane Wilson, the Yukon Field Unit Superintendent, said of Thursday’s rescue.

“It takes the whole village, so to speak, to launch a rescue operation; we’re very pleased with the support,” she noted during Friday’s teleconference.

Wilson said while rescue costs are generally covered by Parks Canada’s budget, every incident is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Parks Canada is still evaluating the circumstances from the Mount Logan rescue, including final costs.

Mount Logan in Kluane National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the highest point in Canada with a peak of 5,959 metres (19,550 feet).

It’s the second-highest in North America only to Alaska’s Mount McKinley, and also has the largest base circumference of any mountain on Earth.

On average, 25 climbers attempt to summit Mount Logan annually. But solo attempts are rare.

Pitchforth said there is an average of one rescue per year in the Kluane National Park. There have already been two rescues this year.